White House Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci, and wife, Deidra Ball are getting divorced. Page Six broke the news yesterday. The couple dated for approximately three years before marrying in 2014. They have two children.

Scaramucci asked for privacy and prayers in a tweet late Friday night.

Leave civilians out of this. I can take the hits, but I would ask that you would put my family in your thoughts and prayers & nothing more.

Anonymous sources told Page Six that Ball filed for divorce because she doesn’t like her husband’s blind ambition. “Deidre has left him and has filed for divorce. She liked the nice Wall Street life and their home on Long Island, not the insane world of D.C. She is tired of his naked ambition, which is so enormous that it left her at her wits’ end. She has left him even though they have two children together.”

Divorce laws can be quite complicated, especially when money and children are involved. There is no federal divorce law and at least one spouse must be a resident of the state in which divorce papers are filed. In this case, both parties are New York residents.

New York State requires a legally acceptable reason for a divorcing couple to call it quits. “No fault” divorces were legalized in 2010. Before that, couples could only file for divorce in cases of cruel and inhuman treatment, abandonment, confinement in prison for more than 3 years, adultery, or after living apart pursuant to a separation agreement. New York’s “no fault” option requires the parties to state that there has been an “irretrievable breakdown in the relationship for a period of at least 6 months.”

New York’s Equitable Distribution Law is likely to be a real thorn in Scaramucci’s side throughout this process. The law distinguishes between marital property – property acquired during the course of the marriage – and separate property – property owned by either spouse before the marriage.

Marital property is defined under the law as any property obtained from the date of the marriage to the filing of divorce papers. This includes not only cars and houses but bank accounts as well.

Anything Scaramucci owned before the marriage belongs to him in the divorce. The water gets a little muddy, though, when considering the massive profit he earned through the sale of his company in January of this year. If the court determines that income from the sale is marital property, Ball could walk away with a massive chunk of change.

New York State also offers alternatives to the traditional court experience for divorce proceedings. Parties may take advantage of divorce mediation or collaborative family law. Both of these options work with the family to develop a best-case-scenario outcome for everyone.

Regardless of how Scaramucci and Ball decide to move forward, let’s hope they keep the best interest of the children in mind and work to maintain a healthy co-parenting relationship moving forward.

Starleigh Smith is a third-year law student at Washington and Lee University School of Law. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Florida State University (Go Noles!). When she is not busy with school, Starleigh spends her free time with her husband and three children hiking, watching movies, traveling, attending soccer games, and cooking (always cooking).